The Saudi sky clears for the European Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and darkens for the French Rafale. Visiting Israel on Sunday January 7, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared that Berlin was ready to lift its veto on the sale of forty-eight Eurofighters to Riyadh, blocked for years due to the war being waged. in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, attributed by the CIA to Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman.
“We do not see ourselves, as the German federal government, opposing British considerations on other Eurofighters”said M.me Baerbock. Commissioned in 2004, the aircraft is the result of collaboration between the British BAE Systems, the German-Spanish Airbus Defense and Space and the Italian Leonardo.
THE “nein” This sale, decreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018, was included, in 2021, in the contract of the SPD-Green-Liberal coalition of her successor Olaf Scholz. THE Green (Greens), party of Mme Baerbock, were also the most vigorous opponents of the delivery of these planes. And barely known, his words triggered an outcry among the Greens, who were mostly hostile to this sale.
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On public radio RBB, the president of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, recognized the positive role of Saudi Arabia in the Israel-Hamas conflict, while adding that its human rights abuses should block the delivery of planes from fight. Sarah Nanni, spokesperson for the Green group in the Bundestag, said she expected the government to “ remains in its position”, while the president of the Young Ecologists, Svenja Appuhn, described the announcement as “irresponsible”.
The probable green light from Berlin buries Dassault Aviation’s chances: in October, Riyadh asked the French manufacturer to make a commercial offer for fifty-four Rafales – an option visibly opened by the Wahhabi kingdom to force the German government to lift its embargo . For its part, the United Kingdom was putting pressure on it to honor this contract signed in London almost six years ago.
Riyadh’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict contributed to breaking the deadlock and making this turnaround better accepted. Despite the IDF’s deadly response to the terrorist attacks of October 7, the Saudis have not given up on normalizing their relations with the Jewish state, welcomed Ms.me Baerbock. They were progressing very quickly on the eve of October 7, the day of the massacres perpetrated by Hamas, which left 1,200 dead.
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